Missing moments
by Imagine69
Summary: For Gwen, life at home didn't always make it on camera. But it was nonetheless important.
1. When Everything Changed

Rhys' face lit up with a smile when he heard the sound of the key turning in the lock and the creaking of the door.

"You're home early, love!" Rhys called from the kitchen.

His smile faded slightly when he realised there were two sets of footsteps. He looked up from the carrots that he was peeling.

"Thank you, Andy," Gwen was saying. Andy murmured something about getting some rest.

Ducking around the corner, Rhys was just in time to catch Andy before he left. He glanced at Gwen briefly - she seemed to be rather distracted, as if she was trying to figure out a maths problem in her head.

"Oh good, you're home, Rhys," Andy said. "Look after her, will you?"

"Of course," Rhys replied, frowning. "What happened? Thanks for bringing her back."

"She hurt her head breaking up a bar fight," Andy explained.

Just as Rhys began to turn to Gwen and start fussing over her, Gwen seemed to come out of her reverie to forestall his concern, "I'm all right, Rhys. They patched me up at the hospital."

"I'd better get back," Andy said, his hand already on the door handle.

Rhys nodded his thanks again, and guided Gwen to the couch. She sounded sure enough when she said she was fine, but her face was paler than usual and her hands shook a little as she handed him her bag and keys to put away. That far-off look in her eyes was returning.

"May I see?" Rhys asked gently.

"I'm fine, Rhys," Gwen said, sounding as though she was putting all her energy into being patient. "But if it makes you feel better..."

She turned so that she had her back to him.

Sitting down next to Gwen, Rhys gently parted her hair to examine the wound. The doctor seemed to have used some sort of biocompatible glue to close the wound. It was clean, with only slight traces of blood. Rhys quietly thanked the competent doctor who had treated Gwen.

"It looks like the doctor did a good job," Rhys said with a note of approval in his voice.

Gwen turned back to him, looking up at him. "Of course," she said. She kissed him briefly. "I'm fine. Promise."

After a pause, Rhys sighed. "I'll go finish the pasta. Then we'll eat and you can get some rest. Okay?"

"Okay. Thank you."

As Rhys turned back to his carrots, Gwen left the room to take a shower. Her head was still reeling with images of a man in a porter's uniform, blood spilling out from his neck and that vicious creature with incredibly sharp teeth. Then there were those people. Special Ops, Torchwood, Andy had said. They had disappeared. Gwen knew what she had seen and she wasn't hallucinating.

The hot water from the shower revived her, and she knew that she would have to find out what was going on. Even if the knowledge would change everything she had known and loved.


	2. After Suzie died again

Gwen didn't speak when she arrived home that night. As always, Rhys was waiting, with dinner ready on the stove and a warm embrace that used to make her feel safe and protected. But not anymore, because Rhys couldn't protect her from what he didn't know existed.

She ate in silence, but smiled and nodded in response to Rhys' rant about his day at work. He talked so animatedly about the most mundane of things. It was ludicrous. She had died that day. She had been shot in the head and rescued only by the extreme determination of her teammates. And here, Rhys was worrying over some paperwork regarding his driver's licence. Gwen had seen so much, and had her innocence and naivety stripped away in battle. Rhys was still a child in many ways. She loved him with all her heart, but he could never understand.

Rhys could see right through Gwen's false interest in his speech. He pretended not to notice the stray tears that she surreptitiously wiped away, or the darkness in her eyes and the sadness that lined her face. Gwen used to talk to him when she'd had a tough day at work, but he knew that times had changed. Ever since he secondment to Special Ops, she never spoke a word of her work to him. He could see that it was tearing her apart. It broke his heart, and yet he was helpless.

Gwen offered to clean up, but Rhys saw the exhaustion and the pain and insisted that she rest. So she kissed him and thanked him, and he knew the gratitude was genuine. As he washed the dishes, Rhys could hear her crying, above the sounds of the tap water flowing on the plates and the gushing of the shower that she had found solace in.

She pretended to sleep when Rhys crept in beside her and wrapped an arm around her, holding her and trying to offer comfort. She tried to relax in his embrace, to fall into the sleep that she so desperately needed. And yet to sleep was to fall into darkness and oblivion. She was too scared to sleep.


	3. Meat

Gwen rarely cooked, but when she did, she wasn't all that bad at it. She busied herself in the kitchen, glancing periodically at the back of Rhys' head. He didn't seem to be in pain now, but she knew his shoulder would start bothering him again before long.

The television was on, displaying the latest trending quiz show, but Rhys wasn't paying any attention. He had seen wonders that day. The sky would never look the same again as he'd look up and imagine what fantastical life could be thriving far beyond the clouds. He smiled. It was a precious secret that they kept, and now he was a part of it.

His shoulder twinged, and he shifted slightly on the couch to make himself more comfortable. Owen had prescribed painkillers, but with strict instructions to only take them as necessary. Rhys suspected that the chemical composition of those tablets was somewhat different to what he'd find in the local pharmacy.

"You all right, Rhys?" Gwen had noticed his movement. She would have come over to check on him, but she was busy frying onions and she didn't want them to burn.

"I'm fine. Stop worrying, sweetheart."

Rhys' reassuring smile as he turned to look up at her inevitably elicited a smile of her own. He was radiant, glowing with joy and love and contentment. After all, his world had just gotten that much bigger in the space of a day. And still he bathed in innocence. They had seen death, and injustice, and they had failed to save the creature, but Gwen knew that Torchwood could get much darker than that. Rhys didn't know, and she would do all that was within her power to protect him from it.

Gwen would have continued looking at Rhys, staring into those innocent, beautiful eyes, but she forced herself to recommit her attention to the onions.

Half and hour later, Rhys sat next to Gwen at the table, dedicating himself to the art of eating with one hand. It wasn't too hard, as Gwen had carefully placed an assortment of random objects on the table to stop his plate from moving around as he picked up the food.

"You can't tell anyone," Gwen said, and Rhys immediately asserted his agreement.

"You know you can trust me, love."

A sad smile flicked across her face, and she glanced sideways for a moment. She quickly controlled her expression, but Rhys was the most observant man on the planet when it came to Gwen and he immediately realised she was hiding something.

"What is it?"

Gwen sighed. "No one outside of Torchwood can know. It's the rules." Her tone was bitter as the spat out that last word. "There this drug - Retcon - it make you forget. If anyone finds out about us, one of us had to Retcon them. Jack Retconned me when I first found out, but then I made a link - a murder case at the police station - long story. Anyway, I somehow remembered bits and pieces and eventually he recruited me."

Rhys raised his eyebrows.

"It's a long story - I'll tell you some other time." Gwen glanced at his shoulder. Rhys wished she would stop thinking of him as an invalid. But why was she telling him this?

"Are you going to drug me?" Rhys asked slowly.

"No!" Gwen exclaimed. "No - that's just it. Jack asked me to, but eventually he agreed that I didn't have to."

Rhys looked at Gwen closely. He knew there more to the story than a simple 'Jack agreed' and he was grateful that Gwen had fought for him to be allowed to remember. She seemed closer to him than she ever had been since starting at Torchwood, and he finally started believing that she really was going to marry him.

"You have a lot of long stories to tell me." It wasn't a question.

Gwen smiled and nodded. "All in good time. Now - finish your dinner. Get some rest."

Rhys did as he was told.


	4. Rhys' Puzzle

Gwen came home to the scent of Rhys' lasagne. She dropped her bag and her keys, and leaned across the kitchen counter to give him a kiss. Rhys greeted her briefly and quickly turned his attention back to serving dinner.

"What's wrong?" Gwen asked. Rhys would normally be overwhelming her by now with questions about her day and random anecdotes of his latest antics at the haulage company.

Rhys tilted his head towards the dinner table, carrying two plates of lasagne. Gwen sat down, slightly concerned. Rhys was clearly distracted by something, but he seemed to be about to tell her what it was.

"Gwen, I was hoping to get your opinion on something," Rhys said, as Gwen took a bite of the lasagne.

"Of course, sweetheart. This is delicious, by the way."

Rhys produced a slip of paper from his pocket and placed it in front of Gwen.

"The thing is - please don't be angry - but I bet one of my drivers ten quid that I'd get a solution of his logic puzzle to him by tomorrow."

"Oh Rhys..."

"I know you don't like me gambling, Gwen. But it's more a matter of pride, you know what I mean?"

Gwen smiled, but managed to stifle a laugh at Rhys' overly worried expression. "Let me read it."

 _The Trucker's Dilemma_

 _A lorry driver is required to transport a load of mice, a load of kittens and a load of puppies from a pick-up point to a certain destination. However, the client is not available to receive each load so the driver must leave the loads at the nominated destination._

 _The lorry can only hold one load at a time. If the driver leaves the kittens alone with the mice, they will eat the mice. If he leaves the puppies alone with the kittens, they will traumatise the kittens._

 _How can the lorry driver get all the loads safely to the destination?_

Gwen ate her lasagne as she read. It was truly delicious - the pastry seemed to melt in her mouth and the flavours mixed in the most perfect manner. Rhys had outdone himself again.

Rhys was watching her anxiously. He, too, was trying to eat his dinner, but because his eyes were glued on Gwen, he kept missing his mouth and ended up with tomato paste all over his chin.

Gwen finished reading, and put down the paper.

"Well?" Rhys asked immediately.

Gwen looked at him for a long moment. He gazed at her with anticipation, as if she was about to save the world again.

"Take the kittens over and leave the puppies with the mice at the pick-up point. Then come back and take the puppies over, and bring the kittens back. Take the mice over, leave them there with the puppies, and come back for the kittens."

Rhys slowly processed this information in his head, trying to picture where each group of animals would be at each point in time. It finally clicked, and he scrambled to fetch a pen to write down the solution.

"Gwen, you are a lifesaver!" Rhys said as he finished writing. He kissed Gwen, smothering her with the sauce that was still on his face.

"I know, that's my job. Save people from aliens," she laughed. "And from stupid bets."

Rhys' eyes widened, though he was still smiling. "I promise - I won't do it again."

"Well, if you do, I'm always here to fix things up." Gwen wiped the sauce from her face, and then tried to clean Rhys up too.

Rhys' smile turned into a grin. "I know."


End file.
